EVENT: Achieving Full Employment for Black Workers

Hit Hard by the Recession, Left Behind in the Recovery: achieving full employment for black workers (EPI Forums)

While all demographic groups have endured high rates of unemployment in the wake of the Great Recession, African Americans have seen the highest levels.  In 2011, the black unemployment rate averaged 15.8 percenttwice the white average of 7.9 percent.  Even during good economic times, the black unemployment rate is typically about twice the white rate.  In 2007, when the white unemployment rate averaged 4.1 percent, the black rate averaged 8.3 percent.

During 2011, the overall reduction in the unemployment rate was reflected in declining rates for both whites and Latinos, yet the unemployment rate for African Americans was the same at the beginning of 2011 as it was at years end.

Join us for a panel that explores about what should be done to reduce high black unemployment today, and what should be done to break the 2-to-1 black-to-white unemployment rate ratio that persists even in good economic times.

Panelists

Algernon Austin, Director, Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy

Tanya Clay House, Director of Public Policy, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Brandon Garrett, Policy Director, Congressional Black Caucus

Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) (invited)

Register

Are Your Hair Treatments Making You Sick?

Terry’s study, “Racial/Ethnic Differences in Hormonally-Active Hair Product Use: A Plausible Risk Factor for Health Disparities,” published in the Journal of Immigrant Health, found that the African-American African Caribbean women surveyed used products that contained chemicals -- commonly referred to as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) -- linked to various reproductive and birth defects, breast cancer and heart disease.


Most recently, a team of researchers led by Dr. Lauren Wise of Boston University’s Slone Epidemiology Center found strong evidence indicating that African-American womens’ hair relaxer use increases the risk for uterine fibroid tumors by exposing Black women to various chemicals through scalp lesions and burns from the products. [Read more]

Foreclosure Crisis Erases Hard-Won Wealth, Dreams Even In Center Of Black Affluence

A Nigerian immigrant who runs an executive car service, Otigba learned over burgers and potato salad that his new neighbors, all of them black, included a White House staffer, a Grammy-winning producer, a lawyer, a nurse, an engineer and a fellow business owner. That's an impressive lineup in most any community, but here in Prince George's County, the most affluent majority-black county in the United States, the Otigbas and their neighbors were just part of the wave of well-to-do families who arrived in the years before the financial collapse to stake their claim on a 5,000-square-foot version of the American dream.


Outside the cul-de-sac's seven brandy-colored brick neocolonials, party conversation quickly turned to typical middle-class concerns, from the quality of area schools to guidelines for the local homeowners association. By the time the Otigbas cleaned up and helped the hired DJ pack his equipment, several of their new neighbors had made something else clear. Most planned to spend the coming decades living in Balk Hill.
"I found that refreshing," said Otigba, 43. "When we moved here, I told my wife, 'This is it. I'm never moving again.' We were planting our roots."


That was then. Today, the Otigbas and five of their six immediate neighbors are underwater on their mortgages, that is, they owe more than their homes are worth. The lawyer's house sits vacant after a failed short sale. The engineer fears the house he shares with his family will become unaffordable when their mortgage resets in about a year. And having attempted once unsuccessfully to cut a new deal with their bank, the Otigbas are waiting to hear the results of a second effort. For months they've lived in fear that an official foreclosure notice will arrive with an order to vacate. [Read more]

New Web site: Voices of Poverty

Our Mission

Our mission is to provide a voice for America’s invisible poor. By sharing their stories, we hope to shed light on the men, women, and children of America’s poverty. Our intent is to make complicated stories too often reduced to two-dimensional stereotypes. And, in exploring why and how people fall into, or remain mired in, poverty—using issues like housing, employment, wages, healthcare access, and education resources as lenses on their conditions—we hope to point the way to possible solutions.

Interviewees, both those in poverty and those who have spent careers working with and around poverty, talk about innovative job training programs; non-predatory credit access; creative ways of keeping underwater homeowners in their homes; progressive tax structures and credits; strategies for improving schools and schooling in low-income communities; and suggestions for refining state and federal assistance programs. Cumulatively, these suggestions sketch the outlines of what a twenty first century war on poverty would look like were political leaders to start treating the crisis with the urgency that it so clearly merits.

[Voices of Poverty Web site]

Pepsi Bias Settlement Awards $3.13 million to Black Job Applicants

Pepsi Beverages has agreed to pay $3.13 million to African-American job applicants and to provide them job training after an investigation proved that Pepsi refused to hire blacks who had not been convicted of a crime, if the company's criminal background checks showed the applicant had been arrested. [Read more]

Survey paints portrait of black women in America

In a new nationwide survey conducted by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation, a complex portrait emerges of black women who feel confident but vulnerable, who have high self-esteem and see physical beauty as important, who find career success more vital to them than marriage. The survey, which includes interviews with more than 800 black women, represents the most extensive exploration of the lives and views of African American women in decades. [Read more]

Blacks Face Bias in Bankruptcy

Blacks are about twice as likely as whites to wind up in the more onerous and costly form of consumer bankruptcy as they try to dig out from their debts, a new study has found. [Read more]

A good credit score did not protect Latino and black borrowers

From 2004 to 2008, only 6.2 percent of white borrowers with credit scores of 660 and above ended up with higher-rate mortgages. Latinos and blacks with good credit scores, however, were three times as likely to end up with higher-rate mortgages. [Read more]

The Gingrich Nonsense

Newt Gingrich has been using the fast exchanges of the Republican presidential debates to ignore facts, misdiagnose economic problems and then present wrongheaded solutions. The key fact that he is ignoring is the Great Recession—the greatest economic downturn the country has seen since the depression of the 1930s. It is amazing that anyone could miss this fact, but, apparently, Gingrich has.


Once we acknowledge the existence of the Great Recession, Gingrich’s ideas stop making sense. His statement that “more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history” is ludicrous. The recession began in Dec. 2007; President Obama took office in Jan. 2009, more than a year later. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) exists to reduce hunger in America. During this period of extreme economic hardship when the rate of hunger in America is high, our leaders should want the needy to turn to SNAP. Would a President Gingrich eliminate SNAP or prevent the number of SNAP recipients from rising during a recession? [Read more]

Few Cities Have Regained Jobs They Lost

Less than a tenth of the nation’s metropolitan areas have regained the jobs they lost in the economic downturn, according to a report being released Wednesday by the nation’s mayors as they gather in Washington to express their exasperation that the federal government seems more intent on cutting aid to cities than on sending more. [Read more]

African-American Pilot Will Head Region for United Airlines

United Airlines, the world's largest airline, has named an African-American chief pilot of one its five U.S. regions, a move that signals the carrier continues to open up opportunities for minorities and women.

Captain James Simons, Jr., a United Airlines pilot for 22 years, will manage 1,450 pilots for the Chicago-based airline's Northeast Region, which is headquartered at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va. [Read more]

Webinar: Why Communities of Color Should Care about Social Security Reform

Social Security reform is not solely a critical issue for seniors, the disabled, and the dependent survivors of workers who die young – each community of color has a distinct stake in its outcome.  Please join us for a dynamic, interactive dialogue discussing:

-How Social Security reform uniquely affects African Americans, Latinos/Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian Americans;

-How Social Security reform uniquely affects men, women, and children of color;

-The current political climate, including why conservatives perpetuate the myth that Social Security is bankrupt; and,

-Recommendations for strengthening Social Security in a targeted, equitable way. [Register here]

Never-Ending Punishment

We propose that the “forever rules” be replaced by rules that provide for the expiration of a criminal record. We believe it is unreasonable for someone to be hounded by a single arrest or conviction that happened more than 20 years earlier — and for many kinds of crimes, the records should be sealed even sooner. The state, as well as private employers, should face a heavy burden to demonstrate the need for any rule that imposes consequences on someone who has remained crime-free decades after a single offense. Yes, there are legitimate exceptions for high-security positions in law enforcement and national security — and there can be exemptions in particular cases; banks cannot afford to hire someone convicted of financial fraud. [Read more]

More Evidence of a Racially Discriminatory Death Penalty

Rather than punish the worst criminals, the Connecticut system, Professor Donohue found, operates with “arbitrariness and discrimination.” The racial effect is very evident (minority defendants with white victims were far more likely to be sentenced to death than others), as is geographic disparity. In the city of Waterbury, a death-eligible killer was at least seven times as likely to be sentenced to death as in the rest of the state. [Read more]

Bad Behavior behind Bad Mortgages?

At a prominent intersection near the border of Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park, his smiling face looked down from a large billboard that promoted his real estate services. Many residents responded, taking out high-risk mortgages that they were told they could readily afford.

In July, it all came crashing down. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Mr. Ahmad, charging him with masterminding a $50 million mortgage fraud that seemed to exemplify a nationwide phenomenon of celebrated immigrant brokers who were accused of preying on their own. [Read more]

Consumers need a strong Financial Protection Bureau

It is shocking that in the wake of a deep economic crisis brought on by irresponsible financial practices, Congress would stymie the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by not approving a director. President Obama was right to insist that the American public be protected by making a recess appointment of Richard Cordray. Cordray has excellent credentials. [Read more]

Time to End No Child Left Behind

[by Diane Ravitch]
. . .

In some states, like Michigan, most of the charters are for-profit, with big dividends to the investors; their profits come right out of the public school budget and into the pockets of shareholders. In some states, like Ohio, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, virtual charter schools are making millions of dollars for their owners, while children sit home alone in front of a computer. These cyber charters get full state tuition, but they have no buildings, no playgrounds, no library, no custodian, no nurse, and few teachers. They often have one teacher to monitor 100 screens.

For investors, it’s a great business, but the educational results are awful. In Colorado, for example, only 12% graduate from the Virtual Academy, compared to a statewide graduation rate of 78%.

We have had a full decade of No Child Left Behind, and we now know that the law has been a disaster.

. . .

In September, I visited Finland and I want to share with you what this tiny nation has accomplished. It regularly scores at the top of international tests in reading, mathematics, and science. It has the least variance from school to school, meaning that almost every school is a good school.Students in Finland never take a standardized test until they complete high school. Teachers in Finland are required to have a master’s degree. Teaching is a highly respected profession. Parents trust teachers. Teachers have autonomy to exercise professionalism.

Every child has regular medical checkups and healthcare, at no cost. Schools have health clinics. Whereas more than 20% of our children live in poverty, less than 4% of Finnish children do. Higher education is tuition-free.

Finland has no charter schools, no vouchers, no merit pay, no standardized testing. Instead, every teacher is trained to take care of the needs of individual children. If children are having learning problems, there are specialists and social workers in every school to take care of them early and provide whatever assistance is needed. Nearly half of all Finnish students get extra attention and services in the early years of schooling. Finland has no tracking. All children get the education and support they need to succeed in school. Finland does not have a longer school day or a longer school year. Finnish schools emphasize creativity, ingenuity, problem-solving, the arts, projects, activities, physical education, and risk-taking.

By the way, Finnish teachers and principals belong to the same union. It doesn’t seem to be a problem.

[Read more]

Program seeks to increase breast-feeding among black women

According to research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black mothers nationwide lag behind other racial and ethnic groups when it comes to breast-feeding. In a recent study, 54 percent of black mothers breast-fed their infants from birth, compared with 74 percent of white mothers and 80 percent of Hispanic mothers. Breast-feeding rates for all groups, including Asian and Native American mothers, drop after six months. But just 27 percent of African American mothers continued to breast-feed, compared with 43 percent of white mothers and 45 percent of Hispanic mothers. [Read more]

Top 10 Lies about Social Security

Since the season of top 10 lists is upon us, here’s the Social Security Scrooge version:

1. Social Security costs are escalating out of control. No. Costs are projected to rise from roughly five to six percent of GDP before leveling off. [Read more]

Obesity, exercise and black females

The evidence of America's obesity epidemic is all around us. But the problem is particularly acute among African-American women.

About half of African-American women in the U.S. are obese, compared to 30 percent of white women. Black women not only carry more weight, but they start piling on extra pounds years before their white counterparts.

So when does it begin, this excess and unhealthful weight? Research suggests the problem starts early, and it may have a lot to do with when girls give up regular exercise.The evidence of America's obesity epidemic is all around us. But the problem is particularly acute among African-American women.

[Read more]